Resolving "only static const integral data members can be initialized within a class" compilation error

Question

The following for creating a Global Object is resulting in compilation errors.

#include "stdafx.h" 
#include <iostream> 

using namespace System; 
using namespace std;    
#pragma hdrstop 

class Tester;


void input();

class Tester
{
    static int number = 5;

public:

    Tester(){};
    ~Tester(){};

    void setNumber(int newNumber)
    {
        number = newNumber;
    }

    int getNumber()
    {
        return number;
    }
}

Tester testerObject;

void main(void)
{
    cout << "Welcome!" << endl;

        while(1)
        {
            input();
        }
}

void input()
{
    int newNumber = 0;

    cout << "The current number is " << testerObject.getNumber();
    cout << "Change number to: ";

        cin >> newNumber;

    cout << endl;

    testerObject.setNumber(newNumber);

    cout << "The number has been changed to " << testerObject.getNumber() << endl;
}

Here are the compile errors:

1>------ Build started: Project: test, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>Compiling...
1>test.cpp
1>.\test.cpp(15) : error C2864: 'Tester::number' : only static const integral data members can be initialized within a class
1>.\test.cpp(33) : error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'testerObject'
1>.\test.cpp(33) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
1>.\test.cpp(49) : error C2039: 'getNumber' : is not a member of 'System::Int32'
1>        c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll : see declaration of 'System::Int32'
1>.\test.cpp(55) : error C2039: 'setNumber' : is not a member of 'System::Int32'
1>        c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll : see declaration of 'System::Int32'
1>.\test.cpp(57) : error C2039: 'getNumber' : is not a member of 'System::Int32'
1>        c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll : see declaration of 'System::Int32'
1>Build log was saved at "file://c:\Users\Owner\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\test\test\Debug\BuildLog.htm"
1>test - 6 error(s), 0 warning(s)
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

1. How do I create a Global Class Object correctly like I've attempted here.
2. And how do I fix that "only static const integral data members can be initialized within a class"
3. And basically how do I fix the rest of the errors so I can get this to compile?

I like declaring Global Class Objects at file scope (I like declaring all globals at file scope) because when I have to create separate source files and do "extern" and everything it becomes extremely complicated and never works for me. Although, I do want to figure out how to do that eventually... it seems every tutorial I look at won't compile though and unless it compiles I have no idea how to recreate it!

If I can just get this to compile...then I can successfully learn how to do this. So if someone could rewrite the above to where it literally copies & pastes into Visual C++ Express 2008 and works I will finally be able to figure out how to recreate it. I'm extremely excited on seeing the fix for this! It is just I can't get Global Objects to work right! Any other information on declaring Global Class Objects...or anything for that matter is welcome!

Answer 1

Just start addressing the errors one by one. A lot of the errors are just cascaded from the initial errors, so it looks like there are a lot of problems when there's only a couple. Just start from the top:

1>.\test.cpp(15) : error C2864: 'Tester::number' : only static const integral data members can be initialized within a class

You can't initialize a member in the class definition unless it's static, const, and one of the integral types. Leave the "= 5" off of the declaration of number. Then you'll need to have a definition of Tester::number outside of the class definition, like so:

int Tester::number = 5;

Problem #2:

1>.\test.cpp(33) : error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'testerObject'

Almost exactly what it says (missing semi-colon errors can be a bit inexact in saying where the semicolon should be) - you need a semi-colon after the definition of the Tester class.

Fix those and your compilation problems go away.

The key thing is to try and take compiler errors one at a time from the top. If you get more than about 3 of them, you can probably just ignore everything after the 3rd or so because the initial error just cause the compile to into the weeds (and if they are real errors, they'll show up again in the next compile anyway).